photo from thescienceofeating.com

A friend directed me to a comment on another bird site that revealed some serious misinformation regarding oxalic acid. One of the posters listed off all of the vegetables she discovered that contained oxalic acid and recommended that they be discontinued in the diets of everyone’s birds based on concerns that have been circulating for years now. Oxalic acid is a term that is on the lips of many parrot owners and it appears to be only slightly less concerning to them than battery acid. So, let’s get ...

Military macaw

I have been avoiding writing this post for a long time. But someone recently contacted me and confirmed that this post needs to be written.

I have for years encouraged people to work out their problems with their birds before giving them up. I stand by that. If you have a behavioral problem with your bird, Birdtricks.com has every tool you need to fix it. Screaming, biting and aggression are solvable problems. In fact, of all of the birds I have ever kept, known or known of, there is ...

Male Red Wattlebird with a beak full of insects. Notoriously territorial this one just swooped my pet dog and is about to get chased off by a raven.

It’s early spring in Australia. Deciduous trees are starting to turn green again, cherry trees are starting to blossom and cyclists are starting to look like they belong on a reality television program called “Aliens are here among us”. Or at least the smart cyclists do, the not-so-smart ones will be learning the hard way in ...

Blue fronted amazon

Q: I have had my amazon Mickey for over a year. I have done a lot of reading so that I do all the right things. One question I can’t figure out is should I have my bird on a routine or not?

Oliver B., Parma, OH 

A: This is a difficult question because the answer is both yes AND no.

Birds, being prey animals, place a lot of importance on their sense of security. Their level of security is determined by their environment. When their surroundings feel unstable or inconsistent, ...

Congo african grey

If you follow this blog, you have often heard me explain how being a prey animal affects our companion birds. It is one of the most relevant aspects to consider when trying to understand parrot behavior.

Consider, for a minute, if evolution had turned out differently on our planet and we were lower in the food chain. If you had the sense that you were always being hunted, watched and stalked, how would it affect your daily behavior? Wouldn’t your eyes be everywhere? Wouldn’t things out of the ordinary ...

Vegetable smeared beak. The galah/rosebreasted cockatoo equivalent of a milk moustache. Merlin loves his food.

The only stupid question is the one that you don’t ask. I’ve heard that often enough and I’m not entirely sure that I believe it. Mainly because I once worked in a bookstore and was asked if we stocked books that had pages in them? Or the time that my mother asked me what the dishwasher was doing and I answered the dishes? Yes, I’m afraid there are stupid ...